Question of the Day

Whose side of the story do you believe?

WILTON, Conn. (AP) - Arriving in Ottawa to put the honorary first slice in a thousand-pound piece of Italian provolone, Anthony LoFrisco was given a hero’s welcome. Reporters and television crews greeted the Wilton resident with enthusiasm when he and his son arrived at Nicastro’s Italian Food Emporium on Dec. 1 to view the enormous cheese.

“I was very, very excited because it was a huge event,”?LoFrisco, 82, told The?Hour. “Brought me back 70 years.”

“(The TV?crew) couldn’t believe this nut drove seven hours to go and see this cheese,”?LoFrisco added. “They thought it was a blast.”

Growing up in Brooklyn, LoFrisco inherited his reverence for quality provolone from his father, who foraged the Italian groceries of Dyker Heights for cheese that met his enigmatic standards.

“He used to look for little fissures and see if there was oil coming up,”?LoFrisco recalled. “It was all part of the mystique, looking at (the cheese) and saying ‘I don’t think that’s right.’”

Provolone “was a central part of our antipasto, and also a special post-Midnight Mass meal on Easter,”?LoFrisco added.

During a stickball game shortly after the close of World War II, a gargantuan provolone appeared at DePalo’s grocery in LoFrisco’s neighborhood. Real Italian cheese had been scarce due to the war.

“This kid comes running up and says, ‘Hey, DePalo just got the biggest cheese in the world!’ “LoFrisco told The Hour.

When LoFrisco laid eyes on the massive half-ton column of cheese, his jaw dropped. “I was amazed,”?he said.

Recently, while collecting anecdotes for a cookbook of family recipes, LoFrisco began scouring the Web for a cheese like the one he’d seen in Dyker Heights 70 years ago. A big provolone in South Jersey piqued his interest momentarily, but LoFrisco was “a little disappointed” when he learned it only weighed 750 lbs.

The dealbreaker came when he found out the cheese was from Wisconsin.

“I figured my father would turn over in his grave if he knew I had Wisconsin provolone!” LoFrisco laughed.

After more browsing, LoFrisco found a video of Joe Nicastro unboxing an enormous cheese at his Ottawa shop.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,”?LoFrisco said. “It was exactly- but exactly -the cheese that I had seen 70-something years ago.”

LoFrisco immediately contacted Nicastro and arranged to make the seven-hour drive accompanied by his son, Anthony LoFrisco Jr., of Westport. LoFrisco was pleasantly surprised by the Canadian grocer’s receptiveness.

“I thought, ‘This guy is going to think I’m nuts,”?LoFrisco said. As it turned out, “he was far more excited than I was.”

Nicastro told LoFrisco that he was due to soon receive another shipment of provolone and invited the retired Wilton attorney to visit his store and make the first cut.

When he arrived at Nicastro’s Italian Food Emporium, LoFrisco was immediately impressed.

“It’s the most incredible Italian grocery store I’ve ever been to,”?LoFrisco said, describing how he and Anthony Jr. marveled over Nicastro’s huge selection of vinegars and capers, homemade bread, pigs’ legs for sausage making, and “at least a thousand” varieties of panettone from across Italy. “We bonded immediately, and (Nicastro) introduced me to every member of his family and his extended family,”?many of whom were employed at the store, LoFrisco remembered.

After LoFrisco made the ceremonial first incision, Nicastro gave the him and Anthony Jr. some provolone to take home. Laden with precious cargo, the?LoFriscos faced one last hurdle before their odyssey could come to an end:?customs.

While crossing into the United States, a customs official asked the LoFriscos if they had any food in their vehicle.

“When we said we had cheese, he asked what kind;” when he learned that the LoFriscos were carrying provolone, the officer said he had to speak with his supervisor.

“I said to Anthony, ‘Too bad we didn’t bring a bottle of wine,”’?LoFrisco told The?Hour.

However, after a tense wait, the LoFriscos were allowed to enter the country with their cheese supply intact.

As soon as LoFrisco returned to Wilton, “I literally did stop the presses”?to add this latest anecdote to his cookbook, “The LoFrisco Family Cookbook:?How Josie Brought Sicily to Brooklyn”.

(According to LoFrisco, the book is slated for publication in the spring and contains about 90 family recipes, some of which are over 100 years old.)

The provolone, LoFrisco said, is long gone.

“It was going to last until Christmas, but I?don’t think it lasted more than a week,”?LoFrisco told The?Hour.